Toronto-based lawyer and professor scores 2nd top pick with Nash

To represent the
No. 1 pick in any of the four major team sports is the dream of many agents.

Gordon Kirke, agent for left wing Rick Nash, who was selected
No. 1 by the Columbus Blue Jackets in last month's NHL draft, has done it twice.

Kirke, a Toronto-based lawyer and sports law professor, also represented Eric
Lindros in the 1991 draft as his attorney (Lindros' father served as his
agent).

"In the last dozen years, only two Toronto-area players have been the first
pick overall ... and I represented both of them," said Kirke, who represents
about 45 hockey players through his company, KSR Sports Representatives.

Kirke said the honor of representing a No. 1 pick could help his business in
the future. "I think anytime you have the first overall draft pick, it gives
you some notoriety and some profile," Kirke said. "And parents want to know
who else you have and what your record is and so on."

Kirke, who teaches sports law at the University of Toronto and York University,
has been a sports lawyer since the early 1970s. He was involved in the creation
of the Toronto Blue Jays and still serves as outside counsel to the team.

Kirke also, at one time, was a lawyer for the Canadian Hockey League, but he
gave that up when he started representing hockey players. He became a certified
agent in 1997.

Kirke's company recruited against high-profile sports agencies when he got
an oral agreement to be Nash's agent about three years ago, when Nash was 15.
Kirke did not sign a contract with Nash until a few days before the draft.

Kirke said he and Nash did not know Nash would be the No. 1 pick until the
moment it was announced at the draft. Columbus traded its No. 3 pick to the
Florida Panthers and the right to swap first-round picks next year to get Nash

Anderson

LANDPHERE PROMOTED AS ANDERSON DEPARTS: Octagon has promoted Ken
Landphere to director of its coaches division, as Landphere's longtime partner,
Ray Anderson, left the company to become executive vice president and
chief administrative officer for the Atlanta Falcons.

Octagon acquired AR Sports, the company of Harvard Law School-trained
Anderson, last year and with it got a top-flight NFL coaches and players representation
practice. Anderson and Landphere represent coaches Tony Dungy, Herman
Edwards and Brian Billick and players Lawyer Milloy and Bob
Whitfield, among others.

Octagon President Phil de Picciotto said Anderson's departure was "bittersweet."
Although de Picciotto declined to reveal details of Anderson's contract with
the big sports agency, he said, "When an extraordinary opportunity such as this
comes up, we try to make a win-win situation out of it."

Anderson said that although he had a multiyear deal with Octagon, he was not
prevented from taking the job. He said Octagon officials were "tremendous" through
the hiring process and were "sensitive to the fact that not a lot of African-Americans
get these kinds of opportunities."

Meanwhile, some agents and industry insiders were questioning whether Anderson
had a conflict of interest because he still owns stock in Interpublic Group,
Octagon's parent company.

Anderson is not the only top NFL official to own stock in a company that represents
football players. Minnesota Vikings owner Red McCombs owns 14.4 million
shares, or 2.4 percent, of Clear Channel Communications, the parent company
of SFX, which owns the practice of NFL agents Jim Steiner and Ben
Dogra.

A bylaw in the NFL constitution states that no NFL employee or shareholder
shall "act as a contracting agent or representative for any player or share
or be financially interested in the compensation of any player in the league."

NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said, "Based on our understanding of the facts,
it would be hard to make a case that either situation is a violation of NFL
rules."

One NFL source noted that "it a would be a stretch" to say there was a conflict
because the football representation business is a very small part of the business
of the parent companies Clear Channel and Interpublic.

Anderson said he will miss the relationships with the players, coaches and
their families as a result of his decision to leave the agent business for a
management position. "I don't know if I will miss the travel or the recruiting,"
he said, "as it has gotten more intense and sometimes more unethical, in the
last couple of years particularly."

Some agents and players may owe Anderson a debt of gratitude because he was
the first person to step forward and give the NFL Players Association information
about former agent William "Tank" Black. That led to an investigation
of Black, who was decertified by the union. He was found guilty earlier this
year of defrauding NFL players out of $12 million to $14 million.